1.0 Introduction
1.1 Background of the Study
Historically, all societies usually establish hierarchies among their members. Socio-stratification is universal. Human beings have invented numerous ways to classify people by wealth, power, prestige, ability, education, occupation; even through where they live. According to Parson, Stephanie and Deborah (2001), socio-economic status is an expression which is used to differentiate between people‘s relative status in the community regarding family income, political power, educational background and occupational status.
The socio-economic status of a child is usually determined by parental educational level, parental occupational status and income level (Jeynes, 2002). The term “social class” originally referred to groups of people holding similar roles in the economic processes of production and exchange, such as landowners or tenants, employers or employees. Such positions correspond to different levels of status, prestige, and access to political power. However, social class eventually took on a more generic meaning and came to refer to all aspects of a person's rank in the social hierarchy (Gale Encyclopedia of Public Health, 2002).
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